As the pucks that the two Fiends had been riding crashed at the edge of the crater’s rim, Nathym tackled Senli from above, hurling his full weight down into her. They went slamming just on the other side of the lip. And Nathym grabbed the rocky crest to keep them from flying further, straining with all his might, then yelling as his arm was nearly ripped out of its socket.
The two of them slumped against the outer crater wall, and their hoverpucks went soaring beyond them, slamming down well into the distance. One shattered on impact, but the other managed to stay intact. Once it came to a stop, it dropped to the ground and waited, acknowledging that it had lost its rider. Nathym could recall it to his position if he wanted, but he wasn’t going to take the risk.
Instead, he scrambled with his panel again, not wanting to yell anything else since he had no idea how good the monster’s hearing was, or if it had traditional hearing at all. But still, he wasn’t going to chance it, and tapped madly at the screen on his arm. The last flying camera orb joined them, tucking itself between Nathym’s legs for safety.
Then their helmets shimmered, and their suits faded away, along with the orb. Through their visors, they could see a glint of where each other and they themselves were located, but to the outside alien world, they would be completely invisible.
And it wasn’t too soon. The outrageous mass of monster crested the edge of the crater, lumbering down as it continued its chase. It kept rampaging forward, as if the two Fiends had never stopped fleeing. And all the pair of them could do was desperately hold their breath as it clambered over their hiding spot, its viscous body barely a foot away as they clutched their backs to the rocky hill.
It wasn’t long until it had charged past them entirely, and it kept going on its hunt. The monster swarmed onto the crashed hoverpucks, smashing right into them, absorbing the tech right into its body, devouring them until there was no trace.
And then it stopped for a moment, possibly to digest its meal. It writhed around, the goo bubbling around in its spot, but it didn’t go anywhere. The monster was undoubtedly searching for them, but it seemed their cloaking worked, and they were invisible to it, from every sense it had. Now they just needed it to leave, to abandon them and return to its subterranean home.
Unfortunately, the timer on their wrist wasn’t so optimistic. It counted down the sparse minutes until the cloaking would disable itself, a measure to ensure that the suit didn’t lose power for critical life-sustaining functions. But now it could be what ultimately killed them.
“It-it’s leaving?!” Senli whispered quietly through their comms, her voice tingling with desperate hope.
“Yes, I think it is!” Nathym murmured back. “Let’s not move until it’s completely out of sight, and- wait. Where’s it headed?!” The man then suddenly leapt up from their hiding spot while still cloaked, running after the monster for a few feet before stopping, just to make sure of their bearings. He then nearly screamed as it vanished off into the distance. “Zjik! It’s headed for the ship!”
The Engineer immediately activated their long-range comms. “Xard, it’s headed right for you. Hopefully the barrier can keep you safe, keep empowering it. But just in case, move Ahvra next to the exit and be ready to get out of there! We’ll rush there on our end, but I doubt we can beat it.”
“Understood!” was the only response they got, all they needed to know he’d sprung into action.
“Wait, how are we supposed to get there so quickly?!” Senli was confused. “You can’t possibly mean for us to run there? Us Fiends can be fast when needed, but there’s no way we can outpace that thing, especially with the heavier gravity.”
“No, there’s another way,” Nathym assured her. “It’s why I kept one orb just in case. Voice Override: Camera Mode: Transport.” The camera that had been lying on the ground began floating again, and two small handles protruded out of the bottom.
“It won’t be comfortable, and I’m going to disengage our cloaking now to save energy. The feature will recharge overtime from our movements, but we still need to conserve it. If there’s even a hint that the monster is aware of us again, I’ll reactivate it.”
The man grabbed hold of one of the camera’s handles and Senli grabbed the other. They took off at a decent speed, comparable to that of the hover pucks, but the device was clearly struggling to stay more than even a few feet off the ground with the added weight. It hadn’t really been developed to actually carry anyone, let alone two people in somewhat heavy spacesuits, both carrying a load of rocks on their back, all while under the effects of slightly stronger gravity.
Yet the little orb chugged along, doing its best to catch up to the monster, and the riders desperately clung on, hoping their arms didn’t give out from the strain. And while they never quite matched its speed, the two Fiends weren’t too far behind. Fortunately for them, the monster seemed to have a change of heart, or at least some thought other than mindless rampage. Because when they got there, it hadn’t actually attacked the spaceship yet.
Instead, the creature was circling it, acting like a bird of prey waiting for its moment to strike. Limbs were still sprouting from the viscous beast, and they were prodding at the barrier, trying to get a feel for it. But then they suddenly retracted, and the monster picked up its momentum. Around and around it went until its entire body was stretched into a circle around their base, continuing to pick up speed.
The monster spun faster and faster, becoming a gooey vortex around the barrier as its colossal body raised and thinned. It practically turned into a blender, chipping away at the protective field as it squeezed. The barrier was holding well, entirely repelling the monster…until it didn’t, shattering instantly into a million sparkling speckles of stardust.
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And the creature didn’t even flinch at the havoc it was wreaking, continuing to constrict more, straight into the spaceship. The outer walls of their space-home started crushing into itself, parts stripping away as they were absorbed by the monster. And the beast began to merge back together, reassimilating into one piece that would crush the vessel beneath it and then swiftly absorb it, or however else it consumed its prey.
“Ahvra!” “Xard!” The two Fiends jumped out of their rocky hiding spot where they’d watched it all unfold, calling out for their friends in peril, because that was all they could do. Senli’s eyes began to well, and Nathym fell to his knees, completely unable to comprehend what he was witnessing.
But at the last second, just before the final gap in the creature’s body closed, Xard blasted up through the hole, carrying Ahvra in his arms. The monster immediately took notice. It abandoned the ship, shifting its attention entirely to the buzzing bug that was escaping its grasp.
The mountain of goo began to lift away from the rocket, giving a first glimpse of what remained. Their ship had been utterly ravaged, destroyed beyond recognition or salvation. It was like it had been swept up by a tornado or crushed by a meteor. Any hope of using it to escape their current nightmare was shattered along with it.
“Xard, to your right, behind the rocks!” Nathym directed over their comms. “Wait until I activate the cloaking. We don’t want to accidentally lure it here. Okay, you’re good.”
The Artillery touched down seconds later, joining the other shimmering specters. He leaned the still-sleeping Ahvra’s head against the rock and caught his breath while Nathym quickly covered strategy. “Damn it, the thing’s already headed back for the rocket!” the scientist observed from a quick study.
“We may have lost that, but we’re not completely mawhged yet. There’s still the portal. I have it here attached to my suit,” The Engineer pulled out a small disk. “The issue is the refiner to make the Nathyum usable. It should still be buried in that rubble. Even though the rocket and barrier crumbled like nothing, I believe it should still be intact. I have to believe it. Because without it, we’re basically dead.”
“Xard could potentially refine it with enough stored energy, but I have no idea how long that’d take, and without our shelter, I highly doubt we’d survive that long. So we need to do everything we can to recover the refining tool. And, damnit, it’s already eating away at the ship!”
The three poked their heads out again, just a brief glimpse to see what they had to deal with. At least there was some good news. Instead of immediately absorbing all the refuge into its body for a quick meal, the beast was actually using its limbs to pick through the pieces. Apparently it had some sense of curiosity. The Fiends didn’t know how it sensed the world around it, but the monster seemed to be examining each piece before assimilating it into the rest of its body.
“Could you—” Nathym turned to Xard, but the man cut him off.
“I’ll take care of it,” Xard blasted away, disabling his own cloaking. “You all get the refiner. I’ll fight it off and lure it as far away as I can!”
He opened fire on the monster immediately, using the maximum strength shots he could produce. Unfortunately, because of the warp procedure and trying to maximize the strength of the barrier, the man currently had no reserves to speak of. That meant he could only utilize what his rings would allow, using up every bit he could to inflict damage.
But it definitely wasn’t enough. While his shots made clear impacts into the beast's body, they were quickly replaced with more goop, making it hard to sense if he was doing any damage at all. If he had his full reserve of power, it’s quite possible he could blow away the whole viscous entity with one blast, but this was currently the best he could do.
However, it was effective at garnering the monster’s attention. It abandoned its technological feast and focused all its attention at the pest that was back to bother it once more. A hundred sprouting limbs chased after the flying Fiend, trying to swat him out of the air as the big blob chased after him.
Xard managed to sever some of the limbs, slicing through the jointed tendrils with blades of energy. But more just came after him, and those that fell were reabsorbed into the alien entity. He couldn’t fly away too far, for fear of losing the alien’s interest, so some of the attacks were a bit close for comfort, but he was managing to keep them at bay. A few did eventually connect with his body, but that just added more fuel for him to fight with.
“Watch Ahvra, Senli,” Nathym checked on the sleeping girl one more time before grabbing onto the floating orb. “I don’t know where the refiner could be in that pile, so it might take me a bit, but I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”
“Wait, let me do it!” the girl jumped up, insisting with determined eyes. “If it’s still active, I might be able to hear it, and could find it that much quicker. Not quite sure what it looks like, but it should still be faster than digging through it at random. This is why you brought me here, isn’t it? So let me put my Curse to good use!”
“Okay, fine,” The Engineer didn’t have the luxury to argue since time was just as much their enemy as that monster. “The refiner is circular and looks very similar to an astrolabe. That’s kind of like a flat globe,” he changed course upon seeing her immediate confusion.
“Alright, I’ll find it!” Senli grabbed onto the orb and took off without delay. Mid-flight, she checked the status of her cloaking. There really wasn’t much time left at all, so she needed to find the refiner and get out of there as soon as possible. The moment her boots hit the ground, she began digging through the remnants of their spaceship.
In that instant, a flood of voices hit her ears. While the objects she spoke to couldn’t feel pain, in the same sense as humans, the emotions they convey could make her feel otherwise. Some items screamed about the damage they’d taken, others were pleading apologies to her, asking her forgiveness for not being able to keep them safe, while others lamented that they’d no longer be able to fulfill their purpose.
It was a lot going on at once, and all those voices were definitely distracting the girl from searching thoroughly. She felt bad tuning them out, wanting to help ease them of their burdens and regrets, but the situation was just too dire. And the battle with a rampaging monster not too far away certainly wasn’t helping her concentration either.
She dug everywhere that she thought could contain the refiner based on the description she’d been given. It certainly would have been in the lab to start, but with how crushed and disorderly everything was now, it was impossible to tell where it could have been thrown—or if it was even still in one piece.
The girl began scrambling more erratically, her fears starting to eat at her. She started picking up large pieces and chucking them around callously, doing what she could to check the most area possible, yet it felt like she was getting nowhere, but then an unfamiliar voice chimed in above all the rest.
🌐You’re looking for me? That’s so sweet! Here I am, right by your feet.🌐